In the Godhead, the hypostasis possesses essence. The one divinity exists in its entirety in the hypostasis of the Father, the hypostasis of the Son, and the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit. The tone of the Fathers is placed on the personal existence of the hypostases.

Gregory the Theologian said about Jesus that he is: “one person in two natures,” and he said about man: “the spirit and the body are folded together in one person” (Sermon 45: 7 and 9), explicitly placing the emphasis on the “person” in the matter of Jesus as in the matter of us humans.

Parents are the true founders of personality. The person is free. With his freedom, he chooses to be a god, and with his freedom, he chooses to fall to the bottom. Freedom is missing in Greek thought. Archbishop of Canterbury William Tinbull once wrote that “Chalcedon highlighted the bankruptcy of Greek metafrica.” (1).

The three hypostases possess exactly one essence. He is the complete King of each of the hypostases. It is not divided between them. It is indivisible. They are three, but he is one.

Thanks to this, each of the hypostases resides in the other two hypostases without mixing. Each hypostasis remains self-existent without mixing with the other two hypostases, even though it resides in them. Each one accommodates the others. This unity is the ultimate goal that the Christian seeks. He seeks in the Holy Spirit to be one with the Holy Trinity and with his human brothers, so that his love may be an image of the love of each of the hypostases for the other two hypostases.

Hypostasis is an open concept, unlike the concept of nature.

The hypostasis of Jesus included a human nature and became composed of two natures, each of which retained its own characteristics.

Nature does not accept composition if other natures retain their own. In the world of nature, composition is a blending of the two natures.

But now, for the sake of us humans, Jesus opened the door wide for human nature to be hypostatically united with the divine nature in a strange, wondrous union that angels cannot comprehend. The fullness of divinity resided in humanity and became an anointing for Him. In this way, Jesus paved the way for humans to become divinized by receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit. The apostate Athanasius said: “God Himself became the bearer of the body so that we humans could become bearers of the spirit” (Min. 26: 996).

This dogmatic logic means that man is an open hypostasis. Theologically, he can be deified through divine grace, and be a dwelling place for the Holy Trinity. As a human being, he is called to be open to other human beings in a depth of love that cannot be fathomed. Therefore, he is in a Trinitarian position between divinity and brotherhood. He is called to be a triune partner with God and with humanity, as we mentioned. Maximus the Confessor excelled in pushing the Cappadocians' distinction between hypostasis and essence to its conclusion in very open horizons in which the insistence on the hypostasis seems decisive. The hypostasis is the foundation of the essence, its container, and its bearer. It is a whole that does not accept division, division, or chemical, biological, physiological, psychological, or anything else. It is not known through the senses or insight, but rather through a mysterious inner intuition, because a person’s secret enters the world of anonymity. Gregory of Nyssa considers the image of God in man to be as unknown as God’s origin. The person cannot be destroyed, dissolved, combined, or fused, as if he were a chemical substance. I was born from my father and mother. But each of us has his own complete personality and independent world, and the person is present and makes us feel his presence in a way that cannot be accurately described. It is not possible to define him. Every time I think I'll catch him, he runs away from me. Even my intuition about it is very vague. We are either a secret called the personal secret. He says: “I,” “you,” and “we.”

His presence has a special, indescribable magic. It does not accept microscopic study. His world is the world of horizons open to the endless unknown. He enjoys freedom, reason, understanding, independence, spontaneity, creativity, and self-management without being exhausted by description of any kind. It is a self-contained whole, destined to reach the ideal person, i.e. the divine hypostasis (who is His living image), to unite with Him to the extent that man can bear the flow of God’s lights upon him, to be the earthly hypostasis, so that the created God, i.e. man, may be on the example of the divine hypostasis, on the example of the uncreated God. (2). We know we are people. But we cannot explore our depths as people.

The day the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon him (3).

The day we are baptized, we put on Christ, are born in Christ, and become members of the body of Christ (the church). With baptism, we receive the anointing of the Holy Chrism and receive the Holy Spirit. Basil and others taught us that the Holy Spirit imprints on us Jesus, who is the image of the Father. When we see Him in us, we see the origin, that is, the Father (in the Holy Spirit 9:23).

It goes without saying that personalism and existentialism in contemporary philosophy - despite being inspired by Christianity - have not yet risen to this high level. In his book “Personality,” Meunier mentioned that the Greek Church Fathers were its first founders. But he remained relatively far from them because he is a theological thinker. Despite this, he and his companions were credited with raising the topic of “the person,” until he entered the baccalaureate philosophy teaching programs.

We did not raise the issue from the point of view of ascetics because that would take up a wide scope. The number of scribes is large. But, it's okay if you come with an urgent conclusion.

Through asceticism, the hermit is freed from desires and passions in general, “and every burden and sin” (Hebrews 12:1). All his energies pass in stages from destruction in evil passions to glorious prosperity in the Holy Spirit. His will gets rid of all worldly obstacles and becomes in full cooperation with the divine will. Carnality and worldliness are abhorrent to the hermit. He ascends the ladder of virtues until his soul is united with God in such a way that the body itself is sanctified, and its hateful desires have died. So: It is clear that ascetic literature places a very high emphasis on Sufi values, on the penetration of God’s light into the human soul. And in all of this there is a deepening of the value of man As a person What philosophy cannot attach to. The spirit is the origin. The body is sanctified because the soul is sanctified. The holiness of the soul is reflected in the body, sanctifying it. It is no wonder that the world-famous Russian writer Dostoyevsky said that “monks will save the world.” True asceticism is the good ground upon which the Holy Spirit rains down to divinize man (4). We will return to the topic one day, after we turn (following the death of Patriarch Elias) to ascetics and Sufis. (5).

(1) Florofcsi mentioned it in:

The Greek Orthodox Theological Review, vol 13, n2 p 191-2

(2) In my book “Half Man,” one encounters personal tones throughout the length and breadth of the book, even if it has taken the form of narrative dialogue.

(3) See issue 3/1979 of “Al-Nour” magazine, my article on divine appearance (pp. 75-82). In May 1980, I finished a book about baptism that will appear.

(4) In our previous footnotes there are references that mention something like this. Especially our lengthy footnote on Maximus and the mentioned chapter from Danilo's book on Nyssa. We are now publishing the book “The Path of the Hermits.”

(5) See 29 references.